Southern Italy was Greek before it was Roman. From 800–200 BC, Greek colonists built cities across Sicily, Calabria, Puglia, and Campania. Their temples still stand.
Plan a history trip →Syracuse (Sicily): founded 734 BC, became the largest city in the Greek world. Taormina: Greek theatre (3rd century BC, still used). Agrigento: Valle dei Templi, 7 Greek temples (5th century BC, €12). Paestum (Campania): 3 temples (6th–5th century BC, €12), better preserved than most Greek temples in Greece. Crotone (Calabria): where Pythagoras founded his school. Taranto (Puglia): Spartan colony, extraordinary Museo Archeologico (€8).
The Greeks brought democracy, philosophy, theatre, and urban planning to Italy. Pythagoras theorized in Crotone. Archimedes was killed by a Roman soldier in Syracuse (212 BC). The Doric temples at Paestum inspired the Roman architectural revolution. Without Magna Graecia, Rome would have been a village.
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